Read Harder Challenge – Task #21

Two challenge reads completed in the one week – killing it! Ok, killing it might be a slight exaggeration but ‘catching up to where I should be’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

The latest task completed is the ‘guilty pleasure’ read. One of these days I’ll get around to writing a rant, I mean post, about why there should be no such thing as a guilty pleasure when it comes to reading, but today is not that day. All I’ll say is that you should read what you want to read and NEVER feel guilty about it.

Anyway, with these feelings in mind, I found the absolute perfect book for this category, because the guilty pleasure involved has nothing to do with the book, and everything to do with the author.

While I may have issues categorising books as guilty pleasures, I have no problem doing so with TV shows (it’s a complicated world of double-standards in my head and I’m confortable with that), and if there’s one TV show that I consider a guilty pleasure it’s The Gilmore Girls. Although guilty pleasure would imply that I only watch it every now and then, when the truth is that I’ve watched every episode at least three times, and when I’m not watching the show I’m listening to the Gilmore Guys podcast (if you’re a Gilmore fan and haven’t listened to this, you should stop what you’re doing and get downloading – it’s all kinds of amazing). Although I love everything about The Gilmore Girls, there’s one Gilmore girl in particular that I get all fangirl about and that’s Lorelai Gilmore (and by extension, Lauren Graham). I think she’s hilarious, wonderful, amazing, and all the other words that mean those things. So this book, Someday, Someday Maybe written by none other than Lauren Graham, is where my love for her meets my other great love, reading. And seeing as the book is about a girl living in New York struggling to become an actress, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume there are some autobiographical elements to the story, which excites me way more than it should.

I’ve just realised that I’ve written a lot of words in this review already, and barely said anything about the book, such is my ability to be side-tracked. But the honest truth is that there’s not a whole lot to say about the book. It was a light-hearted and fairly well-written story about the struggles of a wannabe actor. I found it really interesting reading about the process of getting acting jobs, and given the author I’m certain these bits were all accurate accounts. Graham took great pains to describe a main character that was nothing like herself, obviously she wanted to eliminate the idea that this was autobiographical, but I’d be lying if I said that the picture I had in my mind the whole time wasn’t her. But that probably says more about me than it does about the book. It was a really quick and enjoyable read – I think I read it in two sittings – and although I’m ridiculously biased when it comes to anything Graham does, I’m fairly sure I would have enjoyed it even if it hadn’t been written by her. Well, in the interests of fair and accurate reviewing, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I am doing that challenge too and I completely agree with you about that task. Why should ANYTHING be considered a guilty pleasure? I don’t feel guilty about anything that I actually enjoy reading. I think the only guilt I ever have is if I spend too much time reading a book that isn’t worth it. Ha

Totally agree – there is so much judgement about what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’ and it makes people feel guilty for not reading the so-called ‘right books’. So annoying – right what makes you happy I say!